Laquan McDonald is being tried for murder alongside the officer who killed him

It doesn’t seem fair that Laquan McDonald should have to stand trial for his own death. But nothing in this troubled teen’s short life was fair.

Though Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke is charged with first-degree murder, McDonald also is being judged in court, not only for his actions the night he was killed, but for things that were never in his control.

In order for Van Dyke to prove that he killed in self-defense, his attorneys must try to convince the jury that McDonald was a thug rather than a wayward teen who simply had lost his way.

The law gives the defense the right to delve into the teenager’s past to prove the point. There is no question that McDonald was not a perfect teenager. The jury will have to decide if minor missteps should have led to his death.

In this trial, no one is allowed to call McDonald a victim. But he can be condemned for coming from a family that had no structure, for being born to a 15-year-old mother and a father who was in and out of jail.

For the police officer to walk free, his attorneys must convince the jury that McDonald had no value in our society, that he was, in fact, a menace who deserved to die.

And that his death was his own fault.

If McDonald had not been stealing radios from trucks in that Southwest Side parking lot, he would still be alive. If he had taken his hands out of his pockets when police told him to, he would not have been shot. If his parents had taught him respect for others, he would not be dead.

WGN

Laquan McDonald, 17, who was fatally shot in October 2014 by Officer Jason Van Dyke.

Laquan McDonald, 17, who was fatally shot in October 2014 by Officer Jason Van Dyke. (WGN)

It is easy to blame the victim, especially when he is not around to defend himself. But where does the police officer’s responsibility lie?

Defense attorney Daniel Herbert said in his opening statement Monday that this case was “written, directed and orchestrated by Laquan McDonald.” “Officer Van Dyke was brought into this story,” he insisted.

But it also is a familiar story whose ending we know all too well.

Of course, McDonald should have stopped when police ordered him to. But for reasons we will never know, he kept walking as an officer followed on foot and another drove alongside him in a patrol car.

McDonald did not speak a single word. He just walked.

Herbert called it “bizarre” that McDonald would walk so slowly during the pursuit, suggesting that running would have seemed more normal.

The 6-foot-2 teenager could have jumped the chain-link fence and fled through the adjacent parking lot, the attorney said.

When have we ever seen that situation turn out in a suspect’s favor?

The defense would have us believe that Van Dyke was simply a “scared” police officer, scared for his life and the lives of others. That he had “tunnel vision” and was unaware that McDonald was already dead as he continued to pump bullets into his twitching body.

They want the jury to look at the video recording of McDonald lying on the pavement and see a thief who was “out of control” and “didn’t care about anyone, other citizens, police officers or himself.”

Because people like that, some people think, don’t deserve a second chance.

Van Dyke’s team had hoped the jury wouldn’t hear that after firing all the bullets from his weapon, he tried to load it again. But his partner told him to stop.

They want the jury to understand that police officers are trained to behave the way Van Dyke behaved.

That would seem to indicate that, when confronted, they shoot with abandon, losing all sense of reason and control. But we know that’s not true because none of the other nine officers there that night acted the way Van Dyke did.

Prosecutors contend that Van Dyke fired 16 times because he had no regard for a black teenager’s life.

What he saw, special prosecutor Joseph McMahon said, was “a black boy walking down the street toward a chain-link fence and had the audacity to ignore the police.”

If that is true, McDonald never had a chance that night. His fate was sealed as soon as Van Dyke arrived at the scene.